Friday, July 10, 2015

Recap: Celtics 85, Spurs 71

The Boston Celtics overcame a slow start to take down the San Antonio Spurs 85-71 Thursday night at EnergySolutions Arena.

Both teams finished the Utah Jazz Summer League with records of 1-2.

After sitting out Tuesday's game, Marcus Smart filled up the box score with 22 points, four rebounds, seven assists, three steals and a block for the Celtics.

Outside of Smart, Boston's two first-round draft picks had their best games of the week. Terry Rozier finished with 16 points and seven assists, while R.J. Hunter, who was 0-for-8 from the field entering the game, went 4-for-4 from 3-point range en route to 18 points.

Cady Lalanne led the Spurs with 13 points, while Roscoe Smith was the only other San Antonio player in double figures with 10 points. Kyle Anderson had nine points, seven assists and six steals.

Key Stretch

Boston outscored San Antonio 27-13 in the second quarter to take the game over. Smart came alive after a scoreless opening period, scoring 15 second-quarter points to help erase an 11-point deficit. With time winding down in the half, Rozier missed a jumper but Smart wrestled the ball out of the scrum under the basket and put in a layup at the buzzer to make the score 40-35 at halftime.

Thursday's Best

Smart was worth the price of admission by himself.

On the night, he (in no particular order) ... outscored the Spurs entire team 15-13 in the second quarter, drilled four 3-pointers, took three charges, threw two consecutive alley-oops that resulted in dunks for his teammates, absolutely stuffed Treveon Graham on a breakaway dunk attempt, grabbed a steal and dished to a teammate for a three-point play ... and was pretty much as ferocious and awesome as usual.

Significant Stat

Boston dished out 21 assists on 29 field goals and committed only 10 turnovers. Both Smart and Rozier had seven assists, while C.J. Fair and Royce O'Neale had three each.

Quote of the Night

"I thought Marcus was much better tonight than he was in the first game. Obviously it helps when the ball is going in?you get into a rhythm. We shared the ball. We were much more connected defensively. We looked good. I thought we played well."

?Boston head coach Brad Stevens

Up Next

Both the Celtics and Spurs will participate in the Las Vegas Summer League starting this weekend.